Valérie Trierweiler on François Hollande: 'He was no Cary Grant...' - Telegraph Francois Hollande Valérie Trierweiler on François Hollande: 'He was no Cary Grant...' Valérie Trierweiler, the former ‘First Girlfriend’ of France whom President Hollande swapped for young actress Julie Gayet, talks about betrayal, revenge – and her new search for love France's former first lady Valerie Trierweiler Photo: EPA By Gyles Brandreth Comments I have come to Paris to talk of love, politics and betrayal with Valérie Trierweiler, former First Lady of France and author of Thank You for this Moment, not the title of a song by Charles Aznavour (at least, not yet), but an extraordinary kiss-and-tell memoir that has taken France by storm (650,000 copies sold to date) and is published in Britain this week. It is Mills & Boon- meets-House of Cards, and quite a page-turner.

The essence of the story is this: beautiful married female journalist (Valérie) meets ambitious quasi-married politician (François Hollande), sparks fly, love ensues; ambitious politician’s ambitious politician partner (Ségolène Royal) moves out, Valérie moves in; François becomes president of France and meets beautiful young actress (Julie Gayet), sparks fly, loves ensues; Valérie moves out. It’s an old story, but the way Valérie tells it, with no punches pulled and plenty of torrid moments, it will make a gripping film. “That is the hope,” she says demurely, as I perch next to her on the sofa and she opens her iPhone to show me a picture of her eldest son’s spectacularly pretty girlfriend, Maya. Valérie is 49; by her second husband (Denis Trierweiler), she has three sons – aged 17, 20 and 21. Her skin is peachy. Her outfit is chic and understated, her little boots enchanting. “Maya could play the young me, don’t you think?” she asks. “I do,” I reply, adding, truthfully, “any number of beautiful actresses could play you.

But who could play François? He’s not…” I hesitate. Related Articles 26 Jun 2014 “He’s not Cary Grant.” “Exactly. He’s not handsome. He’s quite small, and when you first knew him he was several kilos heavier than he is now. I can see what he saw in you, but what on earth did you see in him?” “Ah,” her eyes widen, “the mystery of love.” When I press her, she says: “He made me laugh. His intelligence and sharp mind amazed me. He made me feel I was the only person in the world.” It’s clear he played the politician’s trick of listening to what she said and then replaying it to her. He gave her his total focus and pursued her relentlessly. Valérie and François first met 20 years ago. “The two of us fell in love when we were not free. I had a husband I loved, and three young children.” François had Ségolène and four children, but Ségolène, it seems, did not understand him (yes, that old chestnut), and Valérie did. For a time, she held back.

Then, on April 14 2005, he took her hand in his. “You are mad,” she said to herself, “it’s not too late to stop, take your hand back.” But she didn’t, and what followed was “a kiss like no other kiss I’d ever shared with anyone”. At this point, you may say: “Pass the sick bag,” but it’s clear to me that here is a woman who is in love with love. Her first husband, Franck, gave her “l’amour de jeunesse” and she is grateful for that; her second gave her her sons. (“Even before we were in a relationship, I had dreamt Denis would be the father of my children. He had dreamt the same dream.”) And Hollande gave her “that once-in-a-lifetime passion that devours everything”. Once the “electromagnetic spark” between them had been ignited, there was no turning back. “True passion is uniquely intoxicating,” she says. She told Denis what had happened – at once. “I am spontaneous,” she tells me. “I am no deceiver.” François was not so candid, but eventually Ségolène discovered what he was up to.

“It was not easy,” Valérie concedes. “Infidelity is an infernal triangle.” In May 2007, Ségolène Royal, then the Socialist candidate in the presidential elections, was defeated by Nicolas Sarkozy. The following month, Ségolène told François their 29-year relationship was over. Five years later, with Valérie at his side, Hollande defeated Sarkozy to become the 24th president of France. Valérie does not regret her relationship with François, only “the violence with which it ended”. Might the story have been different, I ask, if they had been married? Yes, she agrees, it might. “He proposed to me three times, but I wasn’t ready. By the time I was ready, he was president and things had changed.” According to Valérie, François was a true man of the Left. But once in office, he seemed to lose his way. He began to compromise. And, as they were not married, her position was invidious.

In America, while she was bowled over by Michelle Obama’s “stupefying charisma”, the US media dubbed her “the First Girlfriend”, which she did not like, and in two territories – “just two, the United Kingdom and the Vatican” – she was positively persona non grata. “Muslim countries had no problem with me, but in England, protocol made it impossible for me to meet your Queen.” From the outset, life at the Elysée was not easy. On inauguration day, François was enchanted by her face (“a woman knows these things”) but appalled by her shoes: her high heels made her taller than him. Over time, he grew more distant. She assumed it was the pressure of his work. Curiously, she had not reckoned on the possibility of a rival. Valérie, it seems, is not familiar with Sir James Goldsmith’s dictum that when a man marries his mistress, he creates a vacancy. At the time he became president, François had met Julie Gayet, an actress and director – petite, blonde and seven years Valérie’s junior. He was smitten. When the rumours of the romance reached Valérie, she confronted him and he denied everything.

“He swore to me on my son’s life. He lied.” He kept on lying – until the day last January when a photograph appeared in Closer magazine of a man on a moped outside Julie Gayet’s apartment. While the world was chuckling at the picture of the president hiding under a moped helmet, Valérie was in freefall – angry, hurt, heartbroken. She tortured herself. “I thought of François wrapping another woman in his arms.” To numb the pain, she took too many sleeping pills and was bundled off to a clinic to recover. Caught with his trousers down, the hapless president demanded a separation, but being the sort of man he is, on the day he showed her the separation statement, he suggested they spend one last night together. That was in January. Up until August, he was still texting her – up to 30 times a day. It seems that he was in lust with Julie, but he couldn’t let go of Valérie. “Powerful men lose any sense of limits,” the psychiatrist who treated Valérie explained to her. They must conquer. They must have it all. “It’s called ‘winners’ syndrome’,” she says. But she insists that François was the love of her life.

“What we shared was unique, unbreakable, eternal.” So why did she decide to turn on him? When she had displaced Ségolène Royal, Valérie had advised François to say nothing to the media. “Private affairs should be handled in private” was the neat line she gave him to use at press conferences. So why did she decide to write her book? She furrows her brow. “I needed to tell my side of the story because of the lies that were being told about me. And there was a moment…” In May, on the second anniversary of his election, François was asked in a radio interview about what had become known as “Gayet-gate”. “Did you behave honourably?” enquired the interviewer. Unhesitatingly, the president replied: “You cannot suggest that I would have behaved dishonourably. I have never taken the easy way out. I have never behaved in a way that could cause embarrassment.” For Valérie, this was too much. “His words had a devastating effect on me. Ever since we had separated, he had been begging me to start again, to resume our shared life. For three months, he had been harping on that he had made a mistake and lost his way.

He was forever repeating I was the only one he loved, and he had barely seen Julie Gayet. He sent me flowers. He swore undying love… “Honourable. That was the word he used. Where is the honour in the stolen pictures of a president on the back of a scooter? In the president who keeps his helmet on in order not to be recognised? “Was it honourable to sideline me and send me away to hospital? Was there honour,” she continues, “in sending orders from above to increase my daily dose of sedatives?” – quite an accusation. The Rottweiler was unleashed. “I do not think he realised how much damage his interview caused me. I was stricken as on the darkest day of our separation. He plunged the blade in deeper still. Bitterness and anger made the wound fester.” The fruit of the festering is her book, which tells her side of the story in painful detail and paints a portrait of the love of her life that is unsparing. Her chief charge against the president is that he is a compulsive, serial liar and a hypocrite – and not only in matters of the heart, but also politically.

“He will back a candidate in public, then work against them in private.” He is a politician of the Left who is “more at home in the houses of the rich than the poor”. Indeed, she quotes him mocking the “toothless” ones, and sneering at people with disabilities. It’s devastating stuff and, as she tells it, it rings true. So who will she be voting for next time around? Her answer surprises me. “I could vote for him. He needs to move back to the Left. He needs to reconnect with his electorate. I’d like him to succeed – for France. If he is the candidate of the Left, I shall vote for him.” “You will vote for a pathological liar?” I protest. She smiles. “No president has ever succeeded without lying. I am from a working-class background which hides nothing. The political élite is used to things being underhand. You greet those you despise with a wide smile and malign them behind their back. I could never embrace a traitor, but they can.” Valérie, though once a political journalist, does not strike me as particularly politically savvy. She is concerned about the economic situation in France, but does not have any answers to offer.

“I am not an economist.” She is enthusiastically of the Left and looking forward to visiting London, but when I mention the name Ed Miliband, it means nothing to her. “The world of politics is not made for me,” she says. Could she go back to François Hollande now? She shakes her head. “No.” And she will never forgive him for his most hurtful lie: they had hoped to have a baby together, but after their separation, he said he had never wanted a child with her. What does his future hold? Will he and Julie Gayet end up together? “I don’t know,” she says, laughing, “probably they don’t know themselves.” And what about Valérie – is she still looking for love? “Oh yes,” she says, seriously. “I am free again. And I believe in love – always.” She smiles and her eyes – “they are blue-grey, the colour of the Paris sky” – widen once more.

“You don’t think I am too old, do you?” ‘Thank You for this Moment: a Story of Love, Power and Betrayal’, by Valérie Trierweiler (Biteback, £18.99), is available from Telegraph Books at £16.99 + £1.95 p&p. To order, call 0844 871 1515, or visit books.telegraph.co.uk Valerie Trierweiler: Five Facts About The Former French First Lady | The Independent Valerie Trierweiler: Five Facts About The Former French First Lady Saturday 25 January 2014 18:03 BST Click to follow The Independent Online Trierweiler first met Hollande in 1988 Getty Images By now, you’re probably aware that Valérie Trierweiler was the unmarried ‘companion’ of French President Francois Hollande for eight years, a state of affairs that came to an end following allegations in Closer magazine that her partner had been having an affair with French actress Julie Gayet.

She was admitted to hospital stricken with shock and lumbered with depression earlier this week, and prescribed a “ten day rest cure” by doctors as Hollande decided her fate. “She needs to recover after the shock she received,” her office said. “She needs quiet.” “She knows that a clarification (of her status) is needed,” journalist Frédéric Gerschel of Le Parisien, who spoke to Ms Trierweiler, 48, on Sunday afternoon, told RTL radio. “She knows that, if she is no longer First Lady, she cannot continue to have an office (in the Elysée Palace) and make use of state funds. “She knows that transparency is needed.” But what do we know about Trierweiler? Here are five vital facts about France’s former “Première Dame”. 1. She is of humble origins Far from the grandeur of the Elysée Palace, Trierweiler’s upbringing was far more regular. Her mother was a cashier, and her father disabled after stepping on a landmine aged 13. Born Valerie Massoneau, she’s the fifth of six children. She has been married twice and has three children from her second marriage to journalist Denis Trierweiler. 2.

She actually met Hollande two decades ago Although they started their relationship in 2005, Trierweiler and Hollande actually met in 1988. At the time, Trierweiler was still married while politician Hollande was living with former French Presidential candidate Segolene Royal. 3. She would have loved to cover her own story Because there’s nothing like a Presidential scandal when you’re a hot shot political journalist. Trierweiler’s career in publishing spanned two decades, during which she wrote for French magazine Paris Match and worked for cable network Direct8. 4. She’s the first French woman to work while serving as the “Première Dame” Though no longer reporting on the political issues of the day, Trierweiler continued her career at Paris Match as an arts correspondent after Hollande assumed the Presidency. But she hasn’t always maintained a solid relationship with the publication. 5. She condemned her own magazine for its sexist coverage of her rise to prominence Paris Match made her the reluctant cover star at the end of 2012. Her picture ran alongside the headline (translated from French), ‘Valerie. Hollande’s Charming Asset’.

After seeing her cover, she tweeted her outrage, posting: “Bravo Paris Match for its sexism. My thoughts go out to all angry women.” More about: Agent Provocateur: Valérie Trierweiler 13 Black Boots That You Can Also Wear in the Snow Agent Provocateur: Valérie Trierweiler How "real" do we really want a first lady to be? France's Valérie Trierweiler seemed poised to redefine the role—until le tweet heard across the country turned her into a tabloid target. Most Popular Emanuele Scorcelletti for ELLE Advertisement - Continue Reading Below She was supposed to be a new kind of first lady—for the country and maybe even for the world. An average Frenchwoman, albeit a striking one—middle class, twice divorced, a mother of three who'd always worked hard to make ends meet—who was perfectly matched, in utter unremarkableness, by her paunchy, balding boyfriend, who just happened to be the newly elected president of France. He'd sold himself as "Mr. Normal"—an unassuming bureaucrat who'd bring modesty and humility back to the office of the French presidency.

Most Popular Together, Valérie Trierweiler and François Hollande, France's first unmarried First Couple, were set to usher in a new era in Paris' Élysée Palace, where they took up residence in May. No more of the glitz, glitter, or emotional fireworks that had characterized the time of Hollande's predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy, a man so enamored of fancy watches and chichi parties that he'd been nicknamed the "bling-bling" president. No more of the personal dramas that had turned Sarkozy's presidency into France's most-watched soap opera, as the volatile conservative was, within the first year of his single term, very publicly dumped by his (second) wife, Cécilia, then went on to marry the Dior-clad supermodel turned singer Carla Bruni. And, at first, it seemed like the new political couple just might be able to pull it off. Hollande, a Socialist, looked convincingly grim and determined as he promised to embody the seriousness and self-restraint needed to lead the French through a painful period of economic austerity and draw the curtain on the "confusion of private and public" that had allowed Sarkozy to make his in-office marriage(s) into an embarrassing public spectacle.

And Trierweiler, a longtime political journalist responsible for the lion's share of her three teenage boys' care and upkeep, managed to cut a deal with her employer, the People magazine–like weekly Paris Match, that enabled her to keep writing regular articles about books while steering clear of politics. Journalism colleagues at and beyond the magazine grumbled about conflicts of interest, but the public at large overwhelmingly approved, particularly in the provinces, where they embraced the 47-year-old former inhabitant of the western town of Angers as one of their own. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Americans had viewed the Bruni-Sarkozy romance as a delicious show of French glamour and sophistication. We wondered about the protocol challenges an unmarried presidential couple would face when they shared sleeping quarters in countries that frowned upon such arrangements. In France, however, Bruni had been viewed as something of an intellectual lightweight, and in a country where marriage has been on the decline for years, the Hollande-Trierweiler duo's domestic arrangements ruffled relatively few feathers.

People there enjoyed Trierweiler's Balzac-worthy story of social mobility and self-creation: how the fifth child of six born to a father on permanent disability and a mother who worked the cash register at the municipal skating rink had worked her way up from public housing to rubbing shoulders with the country's most powerful movers and shakers in Paris. They admired her combination of style and substance; her tasteful belted trenches and high heels (off the sales rack); her IKEA furniture; her "sexy décolleté" and "impeccable blow-out" (as one sympathetic journalist put it early on) coupled with her insistence that she had always earned her keep and always would. "My financial independence is, as for millions of French women, a concrete reality and a priority," she declared in an interview published right after Hollande's election. So how, in the flash of a single tweet—in support of a dissident Socialist candidate in a provincial legislative election—could Valérie Trierweiler have become the consummate political embarrassment?

By September, she was being pounded nonstop by the press as a scheming traitor—"irritable, excessive, crazy, a twit," in the words of fellow journalist Laurent Greilsamer, author of one of three Trierweiler tell-alls that were soon dominating every bookstore and newsstand in France. Come October, she issued a formal apology in a regional newspaper and announced she'd "chosen" to give up on her plans to work on a TV documentary series; a poll early that month showed that only 28 percent of the French public had a positive opinion of her and 42 percent said Hollande's private life had a negative impact on his image. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below "I never saw anyone make herself hated so quickly by so many French people," a fellow reporter, who has known Trierweiler well for 20 years and spoke only on the condition of anonymity, was moved to comment.

In 137 characters, the tweet wrecked Trierweiler's public image, helped send Hollande's popularity rating shooting down a damning seven points in a single month (right when his "honey-moon" period with the French should have been rosiest), and has obsessed the French political and media establishment ever since. Its words, banal enough on their surface, translate as: "Courage to Olivier Falorni, who has not been unworthy, who fights unselfishly alongside the people of La Rochelle for so many years." Most Popular Problem was, President Hollande, behind whose back Trierweiler sent the tweet (after a massive fight), had already sent his own official message of support to Falorni's opponent, Ségolène Royal. Royal, it should be noted: (1) had been the Socialist presidential candidate in 2007, and after losing that election viewed this particular race as her last chance for a political comeback; (2) also happens to be the mother of Hollande's four children; (3) and, until Trierweiler stole him away, had been Hollande's partner for almost 30 years. Trierweiler with Michelle Obama.

Photo: AFP/Getty Images "With Nicolas Sarkozy, we had a president who broke the rules," says Anna Cabana, a journalist with Le Point and coauthor of Between Two Fires, the most telling of the Valérie tell-alls. "With Valérie Trierweiler, it's much more serious. It's an unheard-of transgression. She's the companion of the president who went against her guy. It's as though you had a first lady who opened the door to the bedroom of the president of the United States." We want our public figures to be "real"—approachable, relatable—yet if they pull us in too close, we recoil. Hence the collective "yuck" when Michelle Obama divulged, back in 2007, that her husband was so "snorey and stinky" in the morning that their girls wouldn't crawl into bed with him. There's human and there's all too human, and the line between them keeps shifting as the let-it-all-hang-out baby boomers and postboomers move into the highest reaches of public life.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Trierweiler is, in many ways, a woman typical of her time, one for whom it's a point of principle not to passively stand by any man, and to reject soundly the stoicism that a previous generation employed to keep the peace. Even her Twitter crack-up can be viewed as a sign that she is, indeed, all too normal: a middle-aged woman feeling weak and insecure in a relatively late-in-life romance with a powerful, much-solicited man. A man whose longtime partner—the beautiful, intelligent Royal, more beloved by the public as a woman wronged than she ever had been as a political candidate—is very much still a part of his life. Which raises the question: Is it possible for a prominent public figure—a woman in particular—to be so very normal? Don't the demands of public life require a superhuman degree of levelheadedness, dignity, skilled compartmentalization, and emotional cool? Or at least the ability to fake it?

Sarkozy's second wife, Cécilia, had learned the hard way—via widespread public condemnation—when she began acting as a shadow adviser to her then husband, that the French public, like the American, has a limited tolerance for a first lady who allows herself too visible a role in her president's political life. Hillary Clinton, of course, learned this the hard way too, as did Nancy Reagan, and Rosalynn Carter, who infuriated many in the 1970s when she regularly sat in on cabinet meetings with the president. Michelle Obama has always made sure not to cross the line since she landed in the White House—which is partly why, undoubtedly, she's taken refuge in the otherwise uncharacteristic Hallmark card–like moniker of mom-in-chief. On the campaign trail, Trierweiler took pains to maintain enough physical distance to demonstrate that she knew her activities would have to reside in a sphere wholly separate from Hollande's political life.

Yet at the same time, in interview after interview, she made sure to assert the primacy of her position in Hollande's heart—almost as though, with her old rival still prominently placed on the Socialist scene, she felt the public needed to be reminded that she, Trierweiler, was the "first lady" of his heart. "I'm not campaigning, I'm not a woman politician, but a politician's woman," she told French ELLE, in a statement teeming with double entendres. "I know my place. Which happens to be by his side." But as soon as Hollande was in office, there were complaints about the way, at his first ceremonial event in the Élysée Palace, she stepped forward to shake the hands of the politicians who'd come to greet him. Musing over her new role, she'd had the audacity to joke that, acting on a suggestion from a voter, she might take on the title of "First Journalist." Advertisement - Continue Reading Below This didn't go over well with her colleagues. Although Trierweiler was a longtime member of the small cadre of reporters who covered French politics, she'd inspired relatively little goodwill among them.

"That personality she has, where she isn't afraid of anyone and sticks to her guns no matter what, bothers people," says Constance Vergara, a former colleague and friend from Paris Match, and the one author to whom Trierweiler has granted interviews. "She had said, right from the start, that she wouldn't choose between her professional career and her role of first lady. Some moralistic journalists wanted to force her, talking about conflicts of interest, but they were above all jealous, because she could have it all. What better for a female political reporter than to find herself right in the hallways of power, knowing all the secrets? A lot of them imagined themselves being in her place and doing it better." Most Popular When Trierweiler crossed one too many boundaries, she really had no constituency to defend her. A very large and highly vocal Greek chorus was standing at the ready to narrate her downfall. "In one tweet, Valérie Trierweiler completely exploded the president's base of normality, authority, and credibility," says Cabana.

"Journalists now consider it legitimate to insert themselves in her private life." The bedroom drama that Trierweiler's tweet unveiled was one of the many that Paris' journalists had kept largely for their own private delectation for years—former Socialist presidential hopeful Dominique Strauss-Kahn's issues with sexual self-regulation; former Socialist president François Mitterrand's secret second family. French reporters have traditionally prided themselves on gaining politicians' confidence and (sometimes) keeping their personal secrets. (During the Monica Lewinsky business, there was endless talk in Paris: Why did it matter? Why was the U.S. press even talking about this?) For decades, in fact, they'd watched as Holl­ande, a Mitterrand protégé, rose through the ranks of the Socialist party, collaborating—and often competing—with his partner, Royal. She, too, had strived to position herself as a normal, modern French woman, even posing for pictures and sitting for interviews in the maternity ward in 1992, when her youngest child, Flora, was born. (One of the reporters at the time covering government minister Royal's work-family balance?

Valérie Trierweiler.) The media establishment had watched the ups and downs of Hollande and Royal's struggles to lead the Socialist party, as well as the ups and downs of their relationship. They enjoyed the show when, in 2006, with her relationship on the rocks and Trierweiler already in the wings, Royal had speculated publicly about a possible wedding with Hollande in Polynesia, only to reportedly draw the dry response of "I wasn't informed" from her would-be groom. They'd known before the public did that Royal and Hollande had called it quits, even as the couple pretended to stay together for her 2007 presidential campaign. They'd heard that Royal had gone to Paris Match to demand, successfully, that Trierweiler be stopped from covering the Socialist party. And that Trierweiler—despite being the woman who had "won" Hollande in the end—hated Royal for interfering with her career and, years later, still harbored a combination of fear and rage for her rival. "Sometimes something gets the better of her," says the fellow journalist who frequently crossed paths with Trierweiler over the past few years.

"Her jealousy, her little neuroses that she can't control, can't gauge the consequences of. That's what happened with the tweet." Trierweiler's colleagues had watched avidly, deconstructing her every move, when, in April, the first-lady-to-be maneuvered herself at a Hollande campaign event so that Royal was forced to shake her hand before the cameras. Then they'd caught the moment on camera when, on election night, the new president came to Paris and, in front of a gathered crowd, was greeted by Socialist party luminaries, including his former partner, whom he companionably kissed on both cheeks, before ending up beside Trierweiler, who whispered to him, "Kiss me on the mouth." So when Trierweiler sent that tweet, the press had the backstory—the whole long, sad, sordid tale—ready to roll out: How Trierweiler believed that Royal had engaged in "emotional blackmail" to get Hollande to support her in her race.

How Trierweiler and Hollande had fought over his endorsement; how, the morning of the tweet, she'd threatened him, saying, "You'll see what I'm capable of!" And how, in the wake of that fateful morning, the whole house of cards of Hollande's purported normality finally, all too predictably, imploded. More from ELLE: Valerie Trierweiler, French President's Former Partner, Spills Painful Details In New Book | The Huffington Post Valerie Trierweiler, French President's Former Partner, Spills Painful Details In New Book 09/04/2014 12:32 pm ET | Updated Sep 04, 2014 170 Eline Gordts Senior World Editor, The Huffington Post ASSOCIATED PRESS The former partner of French President Francois Hollande has written a tell-all book about her life with the socialist leader and the painful unraveling of the couple's relationship. The book, which was released on Thursday and is titled Merci Pour Ce Moment or Thank You For This Moment, is the latest headache for the embattled French leader.

The seven-year relationship between Hollande and 49-year-old Trierweiler, a journalist for the magazine Paris Match, ended in January when the magazine Closer published photos documenting the president's secret affair with actress Julie Gayet. Two weeks after the scandal broke, Hollande announced that he and Trierweiler had separated. As Reuters notes, Trierweiler vowed in the wake of the highly-publicized break-up that she would not keep quiet -- a promise she lived up to. In her book, she spills some of the deeply painful details of the events in January. An excerpt published in Paris Match on Wednesday and translated into English below describes Trierweiler's reaction to the news: The news about Julie Gayet is on the front pages (...) I crack. I can't listen to it. I rush into the bathroom. I take the little plastic bag with sleeping pills ... Francois has followed me. He tried to snatch the bag. I run into the room. He catches the bag and it split. The pills scatter across the bed and the floor. I recover some of them. I swallow what I can. I want to sleep, I don't want to live the coming hours.

I feel the storm that will come over me and I don't have the force to resist it. I want to flee. I lose consciousness. In addition to these revelations, one part of the book in particular has sparked uproar in France. Trierweiler writes: "He's presented as the man who doesn't like the rich. In reality, the president doesn't like the poor. He, the man of the left, calls them 'the toothless' in private and is so pleased at how funny he is." The accusation is a heavy blow for a politician who campaigned as " Mr. Normal. " HuffPost France explains that while Trierweiler doesn't spill a single state secret in her book, she deals a severe blow to Hollande's image. Many have jumped to the president's defense, but the revelations provide ample new ammunition to Hollande's political opponents. Hollande did not know about the upcoming publication, according to The Guardian. He hasn't made a public statement about it, but government spokesman Stephane Le Foll seemed to dismiss the political implications of the book. “In the current environment in France and with the responsibilities we face, we have no time to lose,” Le Foll said on a French digital channel, according to Bloomberg.

French first lady hits back at rumours on past love life - France 24 French first lady hits back at rumours on past love life Text by FRANCE 24 Follow france24_en on twitter Latest update : 2012-10-11 Valérie Trierweiler, the partner of France’s Socialist President François Hollande, is suing the authors of a new book that alleges she once had an affair with a prominent right-wing politician. New rumours are swirling about the French first lady’s private life, and she is preparing a counterattack. Valérie Trierweiler, the partner of French President François Hollande, will sue the authors of a new book about her, her lawyers have said. The 47-year-old journalist alleges that the book, a biography called “La Frondeuse” (The Rebel) set to be published Thursday, constitutes a breach of privacy. Among the hot topics covered in the biography is Trierweiler’s supposed affair with Patrick Devedjian, a prominent right-wing politician and one-time ally of former President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The book also explores the reported animosity between Trierweiler and Hollande’s ex-partner -- and former Socialist presidential candidate -- Ségolène Royal, who is mother of the president’s four children. “La Frondeuse”, written by journalists Christophe Jakubyszyn and Alix Bouilhaguet, is just the latest in a slew of exposés on Trierweiler that have hit French bookshelves since Hollande’s election in May. ‘Malicious rumours’ or ‘honest investigation’? In an interview with popular French magazine Point de Vue, the authors said that several years ago, Trierweiler and Devedjian had an affair while both were married to other people. In their account, Trierweiler began a relationship with Hollande when Devedjian, a leader in the centre-right Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party, balked at leaving his wife for her. The authors claim that as she grew closer to Hollande, Trierweiler pulled away from Devedjian, “who suffered considerably in the break-up”. Despite their political differences and rivalry over the same woman, Jakubyszyn and Bouilhaguet insisted, Hollande and Devedjian maintained a relationship of great mutual respect.

Trierweiler’s lawyer has characterised these claims as “malicious and unfounded rumours”. The book also delves into more thoroughly documented territory, like the controversy surrounding a message on Trierweiler’s Twitter account that seemed to endorse Ségolène Royal’s rival in the French legislative elections last June. Though Trierweiler apologised, the press pounced, portraying her as a troublemaking diva who was proving to be a distraction for a newly inaugurated president. Author Alix Bouilhaguet took to French TV this week to defend her book as an “honest investigation…into the ambiguity that exists between [French] political class and the reporters that cover them”. Several other big-name French politicians, including current Hollande cabinet member Arnaud Montebourg, Sarkozy’s former foreign minister Bernard Kouchner, centrist leader Jean-Louis Borloo, and disgraced Socialist Dominique Strauss-Kahn, are or have been married to top female journalists. Date created : 2012-10-11 France: François Hollande's Affair Should Be a Public Concern | TIME.com Follow @TIMEWorld Correction appended: Jan. 14, 2014, 3:25 a.m.

E.T. It appeared the most sniggersome of scandals : a middle-aged French head of state riding pillion on a scooter driven by his bodyguard to assignations with a glamorous actress. Closer, the celebrity magazine, larded its Jan. 10 allegations of an affair between 59-year-old President François Hollande and Julie Gayet, 41, with inadvertently comic detail. Hollande’s attempts to hide his identity by retaining his motorcycle helmet until safely inside the apartment building used for these clandestine meetings may have foundered because he wears only one pair of (much photographed) shoes. After a night allegedly spent playing away from his official partner, 48-year-old Valérie Trierweiler, the President is said to have dispatched his security detail to fetch — what else? — croissants. The French establishment shuddered, not at the apparent misuse of state resources but at a breach of the cultural and legal tradition that insists all citizens, even libidinous Presidents, have the right to keep their personal lives exactly that — personal.

Indeed, so highly has this principle been lauded in recent days that one imagines a fourth word may have quietly been appended to the national motto of France : liberty, equality, fraternity, privacy. But beyond French borders and even among some French voters, another emotion bubbled up: amusement. Parodic Twitter accounts in the name of Gayet proliferated. Soon you could even try your hand at an online game , steering Hollande on his scooter to a rendezvous with Gayet and helping him to evade obstacles, including running figures of Trierweiler and Ségolène Royal, Hollande’s former longtime companion and mother to his children. Yesterday came news that made the laughter ring hollow. Amid rumors that the President’s advisers had urged him to oust Trierweiler as First Lady in order to bring the messy business to a speedy end and refocus attention from affairs of heart to affairs of state, officials at the Élysée Palace, the presidential residence, confirmed a report that Trierweiler, succumbing to un “gros coup de blues,” a severe bout of depression , had been admitted to the hospital shortly after Closer published its allegations. Another dark twist linked the apartment used by Hollande and Gayet to the Corsican mafia .

This has never been simply a trouser-dropping farce. At its center are real people and raw feelings — and valid concerns about Hollande’s leadership. He had been expected to use tomorrow’s traditional New Year meeting with journalists to relaunch his unpopular presidency with policies to galvanize the euro zone’s second largest, and worryingly torpid, economy . Creating conditions for growth and tackling high unemployment should have been his priorities. Public trust in mainstream politics is at a low ebb, boosting support for the French hard right ahead of elections for the European Parliament in May and increasing the controversial appeal of French comedian Dieudonné M’bala M’bala . Instead, Hollande is likely to find himself fielding questions about his domestic arrangements, not least about whether Trierweiler will accompany him on his upcoming visit to Washington . He shouldn’t invoke the privacy principle to shelter from such questions. The scandal hasn’t just raised queries about his judgment but about what kind of man he is and how committed he is to that founding principle of the republic — equality. His romantic history has pitted his girlfriends against each other , visiting humiliations on them and on other family members and reinforcing stereotypical notions about gender roles.

Hollande’s women — mature, substantial, serious, impressive, professional people — find themselves distorted into ciphers. Royal, a leading politician, ran for President in 2007; Trierweiler has pursued a successful career as a journalist; Gayet’s long filmography contains some significant highlights. Yet as partners or former partners of Hollande they are known not for their achievements but as his conquests. That a rackety love life puts Hollande in the mainstream of French tradition shouldn’t give him comfort. He is no worse than some of his predecessors at the Élysée Palace and better than some of his political contemporaries. He probably wouldn’t be President at all if Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s ambitions hadn’t become mired in unsavory allegations . But there is wide agreement, even within fractured, polarized France, that the country needs to change in order to flourish. Hollande promised change in his 2012 campaign for the presidency. He could start by putting his own house in order. An earlier version of this article misstated François Hollande’s age. He is 59, not 58. Catherine Mayer is TIME Editor at Large.

Mayer is the author of Amortality: The Pleasures and Perils of Living Agelessly Subscribe Popular Among Subscribers Valérie Trierweiler: Twitter fiasco | Public Radio International Public Radio International valerie_trierweiler_segonlene_royal_france_june_12_2012.jpg Socialist Party newly elected president Francois Hollande's companion Valerie Trierweiler, and Segolene Royal, candidate for the Socialist Party's 2011 primary vote for France's 2012 presidential election. France's new first lady took a very public swipe at the president's former partner, Segolene Royal, with a good luck tweet sent on June 12, 2012 to the politician standing against her in parliamentary polls. Valerie Trierweiler's message on Twitter also put her at odds with President Francois Hollande, who has declared his full support for Socialist Royal's electoral bid. Credit: PHILIPPE DESMAZES France's new first lady, Valérie Trierweiler, set France's Twitter network alight on Tuesday when she voiced her support for a Socialist party dissident running against Ségolène Royal, President François Hollande's ex, reported Reuters.

Creating a strange political love triangle, Trierweiler supported Olivier Falorni instead of Hollande's favored candidate and the Socialist party's official candidate, Royal. In a tweet on Tuesday , Trierweiler said, "Courage to Olivier Falorni, who has not been unworthy, who fights unselfishly alongside the people of La Rochelle for so many years," according to The New York Times . The Guardian wrote that Trierweiler "sparked a political storm and embarrassed the Socialist party" with her tweet, and the incident may damage Hollande who faces criticism from the right that "animosity between his present and past girlfriends has turned his leadership of France into a celebrity soap opera worthy of the worst excesses of Nicolas Sarkozy's highly public love life." More on GlobalPost: Is Germany catching the euro zone virus? Trierweiler has been Hollange's partner since 2006, while Royal was Hollande's partner for over 30 years and is the mother of his four children, according to Bloomberg . Trierweiler's Twitter has nearly 72,000 followers and the now notorious tweet resulted in hashtags such as #trierweilergate and #vaudeville, said Bloomberg.

Eric Ciotti, from former President Nicolas Sarkozy's party, said, "Vaudeville has come to the Élysée," while a Green politician, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, said, "I find it indecent that she takes a position in this business," according to The Times. More on GlobalPost: Spain bond yields hit euro-era high after Fitch downgrades 18 banks The Times said officials at the Élysée Palace confirmed that Hollande's support was behind Royal, but they refused to comment on the controversial tweet. Falorni said, "It’s a message of personal support and friendship that I appreciate, especially within this context of political attacks and personal threats," according to Time . Trierweiler's tweet comes just days before the ballot on June 17 for the lower house of parliament, the National Assembly, according to Reuters. The Guardian noted that Royal is facing a difficult fight for the parliamentary seat in La Rochelle, with Falorni refusing to stand aside. More on GlobalPost: When the BRICs crumble While you are here... The work we do has never been more important — whether it’s because of “news” that might not be news at all or healing the deep divides in our country.

Now more than ever, we need conversation, perspective and diverse voices. Will you support PRI in our efforts to create a more informed empathetic world? French First Lady In Hospital After Hollande Affair Rumors (VIDEO) Not what you're looking for? Try our Advanced Search French First Lady In Hospital After Hollande Affair Rumors The acting first lady, Valerie Trierweiler, was taken to the hospital Friday "for rest and some tests." By Collin Ruane January 12, 2014 France's acting first lady Valerie Trierweiler is in the hospital just days after news broke of an alleged affair between her partner, French President Francois Hollande, and a French actress. According to the BBC , a vague statement from the president's office in Paris says the 48-year-old was admitted Friday "for rest and some tests." Continue Reading This news comes just days after a French magazine published a story alleging an affair between Hollande and French actress Julie Gayet. (Via CNN ) It's important to note President Hollande has not outright denied the allegations, but he says he might sue the magazine for invading his privacy. Although she's considered France's first lady, Trierweiler is not married to Hollande.

The pair have been in a relationship for several years. (Via ITV ) Last May, The Huffington Post noted at least one French politician questioned whether it was appropriate to use taxpayer money on the first lady's staff since she's not actually married to Hollande. Though we should note staffing for Carla Bruni, the wife of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, reportedly cost the government three times as much as it does right now for Trierweiler. Anyway, The Telegraph reports Hollande's Tuesday news conference on the economy could be overshadowed by the affair allegations, as even more photos could soon be printed by other French outlets. Sky News reports the first lady is expected to leave the hospital Monday. Hollande has been in a relationship with Trierweiler since leaving his former partner of more than 20 years.

'French first lady Valerie Trierweiler is in hospital with depression following news of partner Francoise Hollande's affair' | Daily Mail Online Next 'French first lady Valerie Trierweiler is in hospital with depression following news of partner Francoise Hollande's affair' Valerie Trierweiler, the partner of French president Francois Holland, is said to be in hospital in Paris suffering from depression This week French Closer magazine alleged Hollande was having an affair It ran pictures of Hollande apparently going to see Juliet Gayet on a moped At the time Ms Trierweiler was said to be 'incensed and humiliated' France: Francois Hollande's Ex Valerie Trierweiler Turns Villain | TIME.com Follow @TIMEWorld The story is as old as the Bible: A powerful man strays from his life partner into the arms of a younger woman and is caught red-handed. Usually, the next chapter is devoted to doling out sympathy to the woman he has betrayed. But things aren’t so simple in France . For nearly three weeks, the world’s press has seized on every available detail, true or false, about the love life of President François Hollande.

The frenzy began with the explosive January 10 photos in a French gossip magazine, allegedly showing Hollande sneaking out of the Elysée Palace on the back of a motorcycle for a late-night tryst with French actress Julie Gayet, and have continued since. Notably lacking from the coverage in France, so far, has been much sympathy for the Hollande’s now-former partner, Valerie Trierweiler (he announced their split on Saturday). A mother of three children, Trierweiler, 48, put her journalistic career at Paris Match magazine on hold when Hollande (whom she never married) ran for president. She now faces having to rebuild her personal and professional life. Yet despite that, Trierweiler has been woefully short of sympathizers during weeks of wall-to-wall coverage on television. “Among some [Elysée] advisors there was some degree of dislike. Others were more reserved about her,” says Thierry Arnaud, head of the political service at the French 24-hour news channel BFM-TV.

“But what was striking as this story developed was how few people were willing to go public and defend her.” In opinion polls, about three-quarters of French people say that their president’s love life has no bearing on their opinions about him as a leader — although the weeks of obsessive talk in Paris about his alleged romance seems to cast doubt on that assertion. And cynically, some wonder whether the story might even boost Hollande’s ratings, which currently stand at about 24%, thanks to double-digit unemployment rates and a huge public deficit. “It’ll make him more popular, because Julie Gayet is popular,” says Jean-Philippe Filiu, a retired French diplomat who has traveled with Hollande. He contrasts Trierweiler’s “always tense” demeanor with that of 41-year-old, fresh-faced Gayet. “She [Gayet] is the quintessential smart French girl,” Filiu says. Leaving aside that characterization, Trierweiler’s own missteps since Hollande was elected 20 months ago have left her especially isolated at this crucial moment. She has admitted in interviews that she struggled to find her feet as the president’s partner — the First Lady has no official status in France — and had consulted Michele Obama on the question.

She won no friends with an early remark saying she did not want to become a “potiche” (ornament, or vase) in the Elysée. That came off badly, says Colombe Pringle, editorial consultant for the celebrity magazine Point de Vue. “It was as though being First Lady was not a job,” she says. But the worst faux pas came within just weeks of Hollande’s victory in May 2012, during the hard-fought elections for France’s National Assembly, when Trierweiler, a heavy Twitter user, tweeted her support for a candidate who was running against Ségolène Royal, the mother of Hollande’s four children, with whom he lived for many years (and whom he finally left for Trierweiler). Royal lost the race, dashing Hollande’s hopes for having her as an ally in the fractious parliament. Though Trierweiler tried hard to make amends for her mistake in subsequent posts, the tweet was never forgotten. As the months went on, the doubts about her emerged at odd moments.

While Hollande was on a visit inside France one day, a woman in the crowd bluntly told him, “don’t marry Valérie Trierweiler, we don’t like her,” leaving the president speechless; the video of the scene played heavily on French TV. “Even French feminists felt no empathy for her,” Pringle says. “Not until we got the story of the mistress, and then the hospital, and suddenly we thought, maybe we ought to be more sympathetic. But there had been too many missteps.” But three weeks into the story, there are signs that Hollande could yet pay the price politically for his behavior, especially among women voters. Opposition politicians have seized on the alleged affair to paint the president as callous in his dealings with women. The fact that his relationship with Trierweiler began long before he left Royal, and that the gossip magazines have asserted that he began his affair with Gayet as long as two years ago, has added to that impression.

So too did the president’s formal breakup announcement: He issued a one-line statement on the telephone to the Agence France Presse news agency last Saturday, saying, “ I wish to make it known that I have ended my partnership with Valerie Trierweiler.” The fact that Hollande omitted to mention Trierweiler, or for that matter any words of pain or remorse, outraged his critics, and finally uncorked the backlash, albeit small, that had not been seen until this week. “I felt like I was reading a lay-off letter, rather than a letter of a break-up,” conservative politician Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, said on French television Monday night. Hollande’s left-wing challenger for president, Jean-Luc Melanchon, called the president’s breakup announcement “the statement of an oaf.” Perhaps trying to cut as much distance as possible from her life’s implosion, Trierweiler flew to Mumbai on Sunday — a day after her public breakup — to attend a charity event that had been scheduled long before the current drama.

Yet even from a distance of 4,300 miles she seemed unable to leave it all behind, telling a clutch of reporters that the pressures and internal tensions within the Elysée had torn her and Hollande’s relationship apart, and suggesting that they might still be together if Hollande had not won the presidential election in May, 2012. Instead, she said she had faced “low-blows” and “backstabbing” during their 20 months in the Elysée. With that part of her life over she may find that the blows do not entirely stop, as France continues its transformation from a country that once barely commented on the private lives of public officials and their families to one that considers them fair game. Vivienne Walt lives in Paris and has written for TIME since 2003, from dozens of countries around the Middle East, Africa, and Europe. Subscribe Popular Among Subscribers

Question: Valerie Trierweiler was the partner for some years of which politician?
Answer: Francois Hollande